


Some Risks Are Worth Taking

by AnonEhouse



Category: Patricia Brigg's Hurog Duology
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-24
Updated: 2010-12-24
Packaged: 2017-10-14 01:18:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,705
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/143771
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnonEhouse/pseuds/AnonEhouse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Unbetaed. This story fits at the end of Dragon Bones but goes off in a direction that probably wouldn't result in Dragon Blood.</p><p>In October 2011 I added a bit more.</p>
    </blockquote>





	Some Risks Are Worth Taking

**Author's Note:**

  * For [blakefancier](https://archiveofourown.org/users/blakefancier/gifts).



> Unbetaed. This story fits at the end of Dragon Bones but goes off in a direction that probably wouldn't result in Dragon Blood.
> 
> In October 2011 I added a bit more.

(If you are reading this on any PAY site this is a STOLEN WORK, the author has NOT Given Permission for it to be here. If you're paying to read it, you're being cheated too because you can read it on Archiveofourown for FREE.)

"Some risks might be worth taking, Ward." Oreg said, not quite looking at me, not quite looking down the mountain trail leading to Hurog's remnant, to the slow rebuilding I'd begun after... after I'd killed him.

I turned from leading Pansy to face Oreg, halting the stallion with a hand against his chest. "Might be? What are you planning to risk now?"

Oreg met my eyes for an instant, and then looked away. "I was just... remembering the Siphern carvings." His face was pale, and his hands clenched until the skin over his knuckles was white. Something was frightening him. Was it me? And what had erotic temple carvings to do with... oh. They weren't all men with women.

"I'm not my father or my grandfather, Oreg." I felt absurdly hurt, that he would think I'd contemplate abusing him.

Oreg shook his head. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean..." He ducked his head and sounded miserable.

I dropped Pansy's reins to ground tie him, and took Oreg's shoulders in a firm grip. "I love you like a brother, Oreg."

He looked at me again, eyes gone dark with the Hurog purple-blue an amethyst ring about the black pupil. He said, softly, in a voice that shook, "It's not enough."

"Oreg?" I was more confused than ever. "What did you want from me? What do you need? Whatever it is, you can have it for the asking."

"I want..." Oreg swallowed so hard I could see the muscles in his jaw clench. "I want to share you with Tisala. I know... you need an heir, and even if you didn't, you love her. Really love her. I wouldn't ask you to hurt her, but I thought... she might not mind if sometimes... it wouldn't be the first time a Hurogmeten has taken a lover in addition to his wife."

I stood, letting Oreg's nervous pleas wash over me while I tried for once not to think, but to feel. Did I want this? My body said yes, yes on a deeper level than my purely human feelings for Tisala. Oreg was Hurog, was the magic in my bones, was complex, powerful, fragile, terrified, brave... being without him had been... worse than bad. It had been like being hollowed out, numb and uncaring. I wrapped my arms around him, and pulled him close. "I'll talk to Tisala later." I thought she would understand, but even if she didn't, she was stronger than Oreg and less dear to me. I could more readily bear to hurt her, knowing she would survive it. I lowered my head to touch my lips to his.

I don't know how long we kissed. Pansy's snort of impatience broke my concentration, and we stepped apart. "Not here. Not in hiding, as if we are ashamed." Oreg had existed too long in the shadows, been a slave to fear and pain. I would not have him make that sacrifice for my pride or position.

Only fools would walk down a mountain trail hand in hand, but I felt connected to Oreg as if we touched every step of the way. The Blue Guard were toiling at the fallen walls when we returned. I unharnessed and set Pansy loose in the small paddock and then I did take Oreg's hand. There were brief assessing looks before people returned to their work, survival too important for surprise or outrage. I suspected most of them would simply be too glad for the presence of a powerful wizard at my side to care why he was at my side. And some, I think, would be glad for me.

Tosten saw us, and went completely still. My brother might be a worse problem than Tisala. After a long moment, he searched my face, then nodded and walked past us, joining a group of men working to put another stone in place. I let out a breath I hadn't realized I was holding and put my free arm around Oreg's shoulders. "I'll talk to Tosten later, too." That would not be easy, or pleasant.

Oreg tilted his head and grinned at me. He said softly, "You must really love me."

"I do." I kissed him again, a brief press of lips, before leading him to the place where I slept. It was large enough for a throne room, but nearly totally bare, lacking a roof and furnished with a pile of rushes and pine branches for a bed. It had walls on all four sides and the stone flagged floor was intact, which put it above most of the building.

Oreg didn't seem to notice the surroundings. He swallowed again, looking down at the bed, and began trembling, violently. When I took a step toward him, he stumbled backwards, pressing himself against the wall and breathing rapidly. I stopped and held up my hands, silently cursing everyone who'd tormented Oreg over the centuries. "We don't have to do anything," I said. "Not until you're ready."

He shook his head. "I... in this body... I never... it always was... bad. I know it won't be like that with you. I thought it was enough that I know that. But it's not." He wrapped his arms around himself and shivered. He looked up at me, and his eyes were so stricken it made something inside me twist painfully. "I'm sorry," he whispered.

"I'm sorry, too," I said, trying to think of a way to let Oreg have what he needed. "Would it help if I let you bind me?" I wouldn't have thought it possible, but he went even paler.

"No. No... anything... it's all... anything people can do, it all can hurt."

I studied him, studied the problem. There had to be a way. "Could I pleasure you in your dragon form?"

Oreg's eyes widened and his chin lifted. Softly he said, "Yes. Yes, I think so. I never... even then there weren't many of us, and I was too young, too human...no one wanted me."

"I want you." I had only a vague idea what to do, but I was fairly sure I'd figure something out. At least he should not fear me, and I knew I should never fear him.

He grinned and took a deep breath which seemed to swell his chest more and more, the purple-blue of his eyes melting and flowing over him in deepening shades as he grew until the chamber was diminished and glorified by his iridescent beauty. His eyes were still Oreg's eyes, loving and shy. He spread his lavender wings, letting sunlight sparkle along the gold and black edges. "You are so beautiful," I said. He lowered his head and I reached out to put my arms around the warm scales of his neck as I kissed him.

I jerked back as power flowed into me, stronger than I'd ever felt. Oreg made a questioning noise, rising up on his hind legs in alarm, but before he could return to human, I knew, I knew. This was right. I stretched and grinned at him, before spreading my own wings, gold edged with blue, and rising into the sky.

I heard the workers cry out in astonished delight below me, and then Oreg leaped to join me, twining his tail with mine, fitting his smaller body to mine. It was good, so good. My broad wings reached for the sun even as Oreg filled me, warming the cold hollow, making me truly the Hurogmeten, protector and lover of dragons.

***@**@***

My wings are stronger, my serpentine body broader, so it was natural for Oreg to twine himself around me as we flew. I hadn't realized, but dragons don't make love as men do. It should be strange and frightening, but it's familiar in a way that goes deeper than memory. Whatever he does, it's magic filling my entire being. We spiral in the sky, sun hot and wind cool, while our people watch in awe below us.

I roar from excess of pure joy, and the sound echoes through the mountains of Hurog, echoes but strengthens instead of fading. And then I see them: the brothers and sisters of our line in glorious colors like gemstones sewn into velvet robes, sparkling against the deep blue sky as they fly to join us in the mating ritual, older than the mountains. We dance all day, pleasure and magic rising higher and higher, weariness overridden by instinct. Scales rub off and spiral down like glittering leaves, dissolving into fine mist that sinks into the ground, into the shattered stones of Hurog Keep, into the upturned faces of the people who will no longer merely be people.

And then the night comes, and we breathe fire, fire in indigo and emerald, amber and rose-madder, and colors that have no names. We see visions, and hear voices of those dragons long gone, exulting as they sing of the past, the present and the future. The moon rises, full and golden. We are full and golden.

We have settled into each other's hearts and minds so closely we don't know which of us starts the descent to the ground, which of us chooses the place, which of us begins clawing at the soil of a disused field. The Hurog people come, fearless among us, with spades and hoes and mattocks, broken branches and bare hands. Together we dig the mist-glittered soil deep and warm and soft, soft as a nursery bed.

And then we crouch on Hurog soil, and feel the magic rise in our bones, rise in our hearts until we are so full we spill over and from our love fall the balls, soft and dimpled, glowing rainbow hues. We breathe fire on them, and they harden. Into the hollows of our soil we lay the children to be, and then we lie down among them and sleep.

Oreg lies within my arms when I awake the next morning. He smiles at me.


End file.
